Captain Robert Fitzroy, Charles Darwin and the Voyages of the Beagle by Dr James Taylor

Robert FitzRoy commanded HMS Beagle on two voyages and for the second (the primary focus of this talk) he selected Charles Darwin as his naturalist and gentleman companion that led to the collection of evidence for the publication On the Origin of Species.

FitzRoy paid for two artists, Augustus Earle and Conrad Martens, to paint the people and places encountered, and these images underpin the seafaring stories. 

The speaker Dr James Taylor is a former curator of pictures at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and author of The Voyage of the Beagle – Darwin’s extraordinary adventure aboard FitzRoy’s famous survey ship (2008).